Some more bus changes

I know it removes competition but there is nowhere in Midlothian that First served that you could not get to with Lothian, the only service that I think would really be missed is the 141. Money given to support services could be given to other operators so why would the council want to setup a new company, they struggle to get by for what they are mean't to provide never mind adding more things to take the public cash.

More changes due in June with new service 40 acting as a replacement for the First 141 and more route and timetable alterations on the 34 / 47 / X47s. The big question is....will they actually make any difference since the last lot still result in 2 x 37s and a 47 arriving at the same time or close together. Will they ever learn what "express" really means?

More news today about replacement services:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/bus-firm-steps-in-to-offer-villages-lifeline-1-2269088

Anyone know why so many of the Pen-Y-Cog buses are missing in action - we even had an "old" 04 bus running on the 37 service today!

More details of the changes due in June to Lothian Buses are on the bus forum at:

http://www.busandcoachforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=11222&sid=902b4f522fba42436d8c81a66d9cc0c3&start=40

One surprise is re-routing of the 47 via Lauriston Place and Lothian Road so missing out the George Street jams. X47 is also changing to X37 and no doubt more info will be released soon

I can't say that I'm very happy with the change to the route for the 47. I need to connect with a 22 and it will add more time to my journey if the the bus goes to Lothian road rather than Leith walk. The 22 would then go along George street which would add even more time to my journey

Timetables for the new 40 service can be downloaded from Traveline here:

http://www.travelinescotland.com//pdfs/timetables/LBAO040.pdf

Another change due is to the 37 service which is changing to every 20 minutes - no great surprise as they often seem quite empty and Loanhead will have more buses to Penicuik with the 40 starting.

Can't believe this new service bypasses Auchendinny - what a disgrace!

Now I see why there have been several of the Pen-Y-Cog buses missing from the 37 / 47 service recently - it seems they have been getting new upholstery fitted as the blue tartan colour is fading after almost 6 years use. Not seen the new look yet but I shall report back on it soon hopefully.

I can only imagine that the 40 will not serve Auchendinny due to the 15 already going through, in reality is there really demand for anything more though if it remains as 1 bus an hour Mon-Fri, but 2 on a Sat & Sun it does seem odd. The only real concern though has to be that once the last 15 runs at night there will be no bus provision for the village what so ever.

Sam, only one or two vehicles out of the whole Lothian fleet have had the new Upholstery and AFAIK none of the Pen-Y-Cogs are in that number and the actual reason for a few Pen-Y-Cog branded buses going "missing" if you like is due to the fact that they are using around 4 of their unbranded newer buses on the route as they have a much improved fuel consumption...(and they cope much better with the hills on route )

DalkyMalky wrote:

Sam, only one or two vehicles out of the whole Lothian fleet have had the new Upholstery and AFAIK none of the Pen-Y-Cogs are in that number and the actual reason for a few Pen-Y-Cog branded buses going "missing" if you like is due to the fact that they are using around 4 of their unbranded newer buses on the route as they have a much improved fuel consumption...(and they cope much better with the hills on route )

Thanks for the info DalkyMalky. That sounds a sensible idea since the newer buses will be cheaper to run on the longer journeys out to Penicuik. I often wonder how many miles one of the 37 / 47 buses does in year - must be quite a few!

No bother mate, its quite a lot I will say that much usually buses have 60-100 gallons of fuel in them and well they come back to the depot on the last fumes of the tank but with the newer technologies its now seeing the newer buses come back in with around 40/50 percent still left in the tanks.
Something to get you a bit annoyed
http://eastlothianbuses.com/

Notice the fare structure so my guess is that it won't be long until city hopper/inner city fares are introduced so we might end up paying more

A very odd (and inconvenient) change to the buses this Saturday - they will stop at Auchendinny for a period!!! Who came up with that idea?

http://www.lothianbuses.com/news/11-traffice-news/1104-penicuik-saturday-26-may.html

Surely it would make more sense to keep the buses running?

Hi DalkyMalky and welcome to the forum. I certainly hope that the fare structure proposed for the new service is not the thin end of the wedge. The annual ticket is almost £300 more than what I am paying for at the moment However, from the bus company's point of view, I can't imagine that there will be enough travellers in the area covered by zone c to make it very profitable. So, like first bus they will charge their customers in outlying areas more rather than making those that live nearer edinburgh pay more.

Hey! Thanks for the welcome and yeah most likely the fares for Penicuik and such will remain as are atm rather than go to become structred but we shall wait and see. Consider me your bus expert if you like

Normally Lothian are very good at publicity on the run up to service changes, they seem to be holding back this time though and folk would like to know 'officially' what is going to happen once First finally pull out and that's only a fortnight away...

They are getting cocky that's all
TBH I have the details and I will post them later on today for you all with links to the times and outlines of the changes

Lots of publicity for the new "East Lothian Buses" service but still no word on the replacements for other First routes. Looking at the VOSA registrations on the Bus and Coach Forum it seems they don't start until the 24th of June. What are people meant to do for the two weeks between the 10th and 24th? Sorry, cannot come to work / school / college for two weeks because there are no buses????

Managed to find more details on the changes to the bus services from 24th June on David Hamilton's site (the MP not the DJ!).
http://www.davidhamiltonmp.com/NewsArticle.asp?ArtNo=92
Thanks to "Dunsbus" on the Bus and Coach forum for posting the information.

Seems like lots of changes to the 37 and 47 services so it will be interesting to see how they work out in practice. Will we still end up with all the buses following each other in and out of Penicuik???

Here's all you need to know;

http://www.lothianbuses.com/news/2-general-news/1101-changes-to-your-buses-from-24-june-2012.html

Thanks for this link, always best to get information from the primary source. Saves unneccessary panic and confusion.

Be interesting to see how things pan out, the more interesting one is to see how things go with buses going through Straiton Retail Park its bad enough getting a car through at times.

I like on little bit on the new timetable leaflets "Our modern fleet of buses meet strict emissions standards". Unlike a certain other bus companies vehicles, many of which should not really be on the road (and are often seen parked at the side with their engine compartments open). I imagine the scrapyards are going to be busy soon demolishing lots of barbie coloured buses!

Will there be any farewell ceremonies on Saturday evening as we bid goodbye to the First 141 and 142 bus services? Will the "last bus" carry a nameboard and wreath on the front as happened when railways were closed down by Dr Beeching?

Don't forget that the 47 will have a new route and the X47 will be known as the X37 from 24 June.